Board Game Arena

To give you an example, check out the profile of this player: ***

Some stats from random games he plays are:

199 Games • 154 Victories • 105% wins
140 (+7) Games • 96 Victories • 103% wins
99 Games • 78 Victories • 119% wins
132 (+2) Games • 84 Victories • 113% wins

I have some theories and perhaps the info is somewhere on the site, but, can someone give me a quick explanation? To save time.

edited: do not call out players in such a way (name or id). You can discuss this toopic without bringing attention to specific individuals. Use the proper reporting tools for that.

Barberserk wrote: ↑24 April 2026, 14:41 To give you an example, check out the profile of this player: ***

Some stats from random games he plays are:

199 Games • 154 Victories • 105% wins
140 (+7) Games • 96 Victories • 103% wins
99 Games • 78 Victories • 119% wins
132 (+2) Games • 84 Victories • 113% wins

I have some theories and perhaps the info is somewhere on the site, but, can someone give me a quick explanation? To save time.

Win percentage is “normalized” so that if you win as often as the average, it reports 50%. Thus, if in 4p mode you win 25% of the time, the site says 50%. If in 7p mode you win 14.3% of the time, the site reports 50%.

In general, if you take each game you’ve won, and count it as p/2 wins (where p is the total players including yourself), and then sum all those up and divide by the total number of games you’ve played, that’s the reported percentage.

Thus if you always play 4-player but you win 51% of the time, your reported percentage will be 102%.

Barberserk wrote: ↑24 April 2026, 14:41 To give you an example, check out the profile of this player: ***

Some stats from random games he plays are:

199 Games • 154 Victories • 105% wins
140 (+7) Games • 96 Victories • 103% wins
99 Games • 78 Victories • 119% wins
132 (+2) Games • 84 Victories • 113% wins

I have some theories and perhaps the info is somewhere on the site, but, can someone give me a quick explanation? To save time.

I think it is about ELO points system and calculations. When you, for example play 3 people game and you win it (means you are first), in ELO terms you actually won twice. Your score is calculated for beating 1 opponent and then adding points for beating second opponent. Second person is second but in terms ELO it has 1 win (and points for wining with third) and 1 lost (and lose points for losing with first). And so on with more players. That what this percentage is. So it is kind a useless unless you only play 2 people games.

Which of the answers is right ? Can someone who comes always second in multiplayer games have a positive win-rate ?

Just check random player stats yourself!
If a player never gets first place, the win-rate is 0%.
Second places don't count.

BarnardStar is right, it has nothing to do with elo. Only 1st place counts. If I remember correctly, tied 1st place counts as half (I believe independently of number of players tied), and only ranked victories count as victories (but friendly games still count as number of games to divide by).

Bottom line: it's a pretty useless stat.

BarnardsStar wrote: ↑24 April 2026, 15:11 Win percentage is “normalized” so that if you win as often as the average, it reports 50%. Thus, if in 4p mode you win 25% of the time, the site says 50%. If in 7p mode you win 14.3% of the time, the site reports 50%.

In general, if you take each game you’ve won, and count it as p/2 wins (where p is the total players including yourself), and then sum all those up and divide by the total number of games you’ve played, that’s the reported percentage.

Thus if you always play 4-player but you win 51% of the time, your reported percentage will be 102%.

So if you play only 2 people games your reported percentage will be right (games won/games played) right?

It doesn't add up for coop games still. Or, what is always possible, coop games have different system. Would be another example unfair treat of coop games by BGA.

tarongot wrote: ↑26 April 2026, 16:12

So if you play only 2 people games your reported percentage will be right (games won/games played) right?

No, because the system counts friendly (including solo) games as "games played", but does not count any wins. So, a person who plays a lot of friendly and/or solo will have a terrible win% even if that player actually wins most of the time in rated games.

FrankJones wrote: ↑26 April 2026, 16:25

tarongot wrote: ↑26 April 2026, 16:12
So if you play only 2 people games your reported percentage will be right (games won/games played) right?

No, because the system counts friendly (including solo) games as "games played", but does not count any wins. So, a person who plays a lot of friendly and/or solo will have a terrible win% even if that player actually wins most of the time in rated games.

I didn't meant solo or friendly games. But let me rephrase that :So if you play only 2 people ranked games your reported percentage will be right (games won/games played) right?
Also BGA shows friendly games in separate number. So I don't know if that is factor there. I have such game where I play almost only 2 people ranked games (not 2 people are less then 2% total) and percentage win is very close to actual wins count: 77% to 76%. But it still doesn't work for coop ranked games.

tarongot wrote: ↑26 April 2026, 16:49

FrankJones wrote: ↑26 April 2026, 16:25

tarongot wrote: ↑26 April 2026, 16:12

So if you play only 2 people games your reported percentage will be right (games won/games played) right?

No, because the system counts friendly (including solo) games as "games played", but does not count any wins. So, a person who plays a lot of friendly and/or solo will have a terrible win% even if that player actually wins most of the time in rated games.

I didn't meant solo or friendly games. But let me rephrase that :So if you play only 2 people ranked games your reported percentage will be right (games won/games played) right?

Yes. (Though co-op games might cause inaccuracies; I'm not sure.)